1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to the field of electrical connectors. More particularly, The present invention is directed to an electrical connector having a grip member which provides for improved gripping and easy manual manipulation thereof.
2. Background of the Invention
Electrical connectors are commonly used to interconnect electrical conductors, or cables, between various pieces of electronic/electrical equipment such as, for example, audio recording and reproducing equipment. In applications such as audio recording, it is common to electrically interconnect devices such as microphones, mixing control consoles, amplifiers, and equalizers, etc. via electrical cables.
Because of the popularity of portable or mobile equipment, compact electrical equipment and components have increased the need for electrical connectors of smaller sizes to interface the more compact equipment/components with other equipment. One example of a miniature common electrical connector specifically directed to audio applications is the Switchcraft model TA3FL "Tini `Q-G` Connector". Another example of a common electrical connector is shown in FIG. 1 and FIG. 2.
Although common electrical connectors effectively provide for electrical interfacing of electrical/electronic components, they are typically small and very difficult to manually manipulate. Thus, it is often difficult for the user to effectively grip these connectors to connect/disconnect them from an interface point. This difficulty is compounded when multiple connectors are closely connected adjacent to each other as is commonly found on, for example, an audio patch bay, audio mixing console or the like. Thus connecting and disconnecting of these electrical connectors is often difficult. As a result, users of these types of common miniature electrical connectors often resort to pulling on the electrical cable, or conductor, to which the miniature electrical connector is attached in order to remove or disconnect the connector from an interface point. However, as is well recognized, this practice places substantial detrimental stress on the electrical cable, or conductors, which can increase the risk of premature failure of the cable or destroy, or vary, the resistive, inductive or capacitive characteristics of the cable. In applications, such as audio recording, where accurate electrical characteristics of a conductor are important, such variations are generally regarded as unacceptable.
In view of the above noted shortcomings of common electrical connectors it is an object of the present invention to provide an electrical connector having a grip member which allows for easy manual manipulation. More particularly, the present invention seeks to provide an electrical connector which is easily gripped and thus much easier to connect or disconnect without having to resort to detrimental or destructive practices.